Tariq Butt / Reuters

A Pakistani court in the eastern city of Lahore on Monday granted bail until May 23 to former prime minister Imran Khan's wife in a graft case, a lawyer in their legal team said.

Imran was arrested by the country's anti-graft agency last week in the same case, prompting violent protests across the country, which is already reeling from a crippling economic crisis. He was later released and received bail from a court in Islamabad for two weeks.

Imran's wife, Bushra Bibi, was co-accused along with Imran in the case, which pertained to the alleged receiving of financial help from a land developer in the setting-up of Al Qadir University of which the former premier and his spouse are trustees.

"We had requested for a protective bail for Bushra Bibi in Al Qadir Trust Case and a two-judge bench of LHC has granted the bail till May 23," Bushra Bibi's lawyer, Intizar Hussain Panjutha, told Reuters.

‘Bushra Bibi will be arrested to humiliate me,’ alleges Imran Khan

Imran, who accompanied his wife to the Lahore High Court, had earlier on Monday expressed fears that the government was planning to arrest his wife as part of what he says is a campaign against him.

"The plan is now to humiliate me by putting Bushra Begum in jail," he said in a post on Twitter.

"Using the pretext of violence while I was inside the jail, they have assumed the role of judge, jury and executioner,” he alleged in a series of tweets. He claimed that authorities have planned to keep him in jail for ten years by using some sedition law to keep me inside for the next ten years.

Imran termed the protest of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) outside the Supreme Court a drama and said its only purpose was to overawe the Chief Justice of Pakistan so that he doesn't give a verdict according to the Constitution.

The former premier claimed that the coalition government will once again suspend Internet services and ban social media. He accused the authorities concerned of violating basic human rights.

"Never has the sanctity of chadar and chaar diwari been violated the way it is being done by these criminals. This is a deliberate attempt to instil so much fear in people that when they come to arrest me tomorrow, people won't come out.”

Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The government denies being behind the case and says the anti-graft agency, the National Accountability Bureau, is working independently.

The case is one of more than 100 registered against the embattled Imran since he was ousted from power last year in a parliamentary vote having serving less than four of his five-year term.

Visuals shared by his party showed Imran Khan's security detail surrounding the vehicle carrying Bushra Bibi — who wears the traditional Islamic face veil — and using a large white cloth curtain to cover her as she alighted.

LHC irked by police officers in journalist Imran Riaz case

Also during the day, the Lahore High Court Chief Justice Muhammad Ameer Bhatti suspended police officer (SHO) Sialkot Cantt after he failed to satisfy the court over the grounds for the arrest of senior journalist and anchorperson Imran Riaz Khan in court, the Express Tribune reported.

Subsequently, the CJ adjourned the proceedings with a clear intimation to District Police Officer (DPO) Sialkot of serious consequences as well.

Seeking original records pertaining to the journalist's arrest, the court has also summoned deputy commissioner Sialkot.

The single bench was hearing a plea seeking directions to the concerned quarters to produce Imran Riaz Khan alleging he was being held under "illegal detention" by the police.

Imran Riaz is one of two journalists, staunch and vocal supporters of PTI chairman Imran Khan and his policies, who were arrested by the police on last week.